Newcomers Campos rebranded as Hispania Racing F1 Team

The Campos Formula 1 team has been renamed Hispania Racing (HRT F1) after being taken over by Spanish financier Jose Ramon Carabante.

The new identity highlights the Spanish roots of the team, which is based in the south-eastern city of Murcia.

A formal launch of the new team will take place on Thursday, when the driver line-up for 2010 could be revealed.

India's Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna have been widely tipped as the drivers for the team's debut F1 season.

"The new team name signifies a new birth for our Formula 1 ambitions and highlights the incredible effort that is going on behind the scenes to ensure we make a successful debut in Bahrain on 14 March," said team principal Colin Kolles.

"While we are a new team in the paddock, we will be very proud to stand alongside such legendary names as Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Lotus, as we hope to build our own reputation in the coming years."

Although the driver line-up has not yet been announced, Senna's manager Chris Goodwin told BBC Sport that "it's clear as far as we're concerned" that the nephew of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna would be one of the drivers.

Senna was announced as a driver last year but there has been speculation that the team may go for Argentine Jose Maria Lopez instead, as speculation grows that his team US F1 will not be racing this year.

If Senna is retained as a race driver by Hispania, the team may still have a role for Lopez as their test and reserve driver.

Chandhok, meanwhile, is on course to become the second Indian F1 driver after Narain Karthikeyan, who drove in 19 races for Jordan in 2005.

He won two GP2 races in three years in the category, and was Senna's team-mate in the iSport team in 2008, when the Brazilian narrowly missed out on winning the GP2 championship.

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